As a new film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice opened across the country, a writer and "dating expert" was yesterday giving love lessons inspired by Jane Austen's work.

At the start of the Jane Austen festival in Bath, Lauren Henderson, a novelist, said confused lovers could learn much from the experiences of Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy et al. The festival's organiser, Sue Hughes, denied that the tuition risked cheapening Austen's work. "We feel it brings more people to Jane Austen. The more people who come to know her and her work, the better," she said.